Yusei Kikuchi — 2026 Season

2026 Season Stats

Pitching stats and MLB-wide rank · 2026 Season

Stat	2026	MLB Rank
ERA	4.96	—
WHIP	1.47	—
W	1	—
L	5	—
K	49	—
IP	49.0	—
SV	0	—
GS	10	—

2026 Season Highlights

As of September 1, Yusei Kikuchi remains part of the Los Angeles Angels' starting rotation, continuing to take his turn on the mound. His results this season have been difficult so far, with wins hard to come by and runs allowed piling up. A left-hander who established himself as an ace with the Seibu Lions in Japan, he has built up a solid career win total in MLB since joining the Mariners in 2019. Attention now turns to whether he can turn things around as part of the rotation.

Yusei Kikuchi has built a solid MLB career since debuting with the Mariners in 2019, accumulating 50+ wins as a starter. His powerful fastball and sharp slider anchor a durable repertoire — in 2025 with the Angels, he served as Opening Day starter, made a league-high-tying 33 starts, and earned his second All-Star selection. Now in year two of a three-year deal, Kikuchi remains the anchor of the Angels' rotation in 2026.

1His outings this season have been a struggle, with wins elusive and runs allowed mounting.
2A former ace for the Seibu Lions in Japan, Kikuchi has built up a solid career win total since arriving in MLB with the Mariners in 2019.
3The key storyline going forward is whether he can stabilize his performance as part of the rotation.

DETAIL · ANALYSIS

Detailed Analysis

In-depth metrics aggregated from every at-bat and pitch.

Data as of: 2026-09-06

Expand detailed analysis ▾

Recent Form (Last 10 Starts)

Older games on the left, most recent on the right. Color shows how they played.

Best: 6IP+ / ≤1ER · Good: 5IP+ / ≤2ER · OK: 4IP+ / ≤3ER · 4ER · ≥5ER (blowup)

Pitch Arsenal

Current season pitch data by type. Velocity, spin rate, movement, whiff rate, and CSW% at a glance.

Pitch	Usage	Velo (mph)	Spin	H-Mvmt	V-Mvmt	Whiff%	CSW%
Four-Seam Fastball	38.4%	95.6	2,256	+4.4"	+9.1"	14.5%	20.9%
Slider	20.8%	86.6	2,422	-1.1"	+0.6"	25.3%	31.0%
Splitter	18.3%	86.7	1,628	+5.8"	+5.4"	27.9%	25.5%
Cutter	11.8%	90.3	2,315	-0.4"	+4.8"	23.9%	27.3%
Curveball	10.3%	78.9	2,603	-3.7"	-5.4"	31.6%	33.7%
Sinker	0.5%	96.3	2,233	+4.3"	+8.5"	—	0.0%

H-Mvmt/V-Mvmt (inch): movement vs. a spinless ball. + = toward 3B / up, − = toward 1B / down. Whiff% = whiffs / swings, CSW% = (called strikes + whiffs) / pitches.

Handedness & Home/Away Splits

Situational splits for the current season. See strengths and weaknesses by scenario.

vs Handedness

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
vs RHB	.278	.845	6	35	16
vs LHB	.283	.746	1	14	3

Home / Away

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
Home	.242	.691	2	22	3
Away	.298	.888	5	27	16

Year-over-Year Performance Trend

Career-long performance trends for every key stat. How does this year compare to history?

Season	G	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	BB/9	K
2021	29	157.0	4.41	1.32	9.34	3.55	163
2022	32	100.2	5.19	1.50	11.09	5.19	124
2023	32	167.2	3.86	1.27	9.72	2.58	181
2024	32	175.2	4.05	1.20	10.55	2.25	206
2025	33	178.1	3.99	1.42	8.78	3.73	174
2026Now	10	49.0	4.96	1.47	9.00	3.49	49

Full Game Log (Pitching)

All 10 games of the 2026 season. Showing latest 10; click to expand.

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
09/06	@ PIT	6.0	5	0	3	6	0.00
08/31	vs PHI	7.0	6	2	1	6	2.57
08/24	@ TEX	5.0	7	5	1	4	9.00
04/30	@ CWS	2.0	2	0	1	1	0.00
04/25	@ KC	5.0	5	5	2	5	9.00
04/19	vs SD	6.0	4	0	1	8	0.00
04/14	@ NYY	3.1	4	4	4	3	10.80
04/08	vs ATL	5.0	6	4	1	8	7.20
04/02	@ CHC	5.1	6	5	4	5	8.44
03/28	@ HOU	4.1	8	2	1	3	4.15

Year-over-Year (2026 vs 2025)

Green = improvement, red = decline. "—" means no data in the same month last year.

Pitching

	Mar	Apr	Aug	Sep
ERA	-0.35	+1.82	-0.29	-5.92
K	-2	+7	-14	-12
WHIP	+1.25	-0.28	-0.21	-0.07

AI · SEASON ANALYSIS

Yusei Kikuchi 2026 Season AI Analysis

Comprehensive 2026 season analysis generated by Claude AI from stats data (as of Sep 7, 2026).

Overview

Through 10 starts and 49 IP in 2026, Kikuchi's ERA sits at 4.96 and WHIP at 1.47, both well outside the top half of MLB starters. The ERA trails the league average of 3.60 and the median of 3.71 by a wide margin, landing closer to replacement-level territory than to the P75 mark of 3.04. WHIP tells the same story, sitting above the P50 line of 1.18 and far from the P75 threshold of 1.09. The one bright spot is strikeout rate: a 9.00 K/9 clears the MLB average of 8.73 and sits between the P50 (8.57) and P75 (9.96) tiers, keeping his overall profile from looking uniformly poor.

Strengths

Strikeout ability remains his clearest asset. A 9.00 K/9 in 2026 is not only above league average but also represents an uptick from his 8.78 mark in 2025, suggesting the swing-and-miss stuff has not eroded even as results have worsened. Historically Kikuchi has shown he can carry elite strikeout stretches (11.09 K/9 in 2022, 10.55 in 2024), and this season's rate confirms the raw swing-and-miss capability is still present. With 49 strikeouts in 49 innings, he is generating outs through the strikeout at a pace that keeps his floor from collapsing entirely, even while other metrics lag.

Areas to Improve

Command has been the clear drag. A 3.49 BB/9 is nearly a full walk per nine above the MLB average of 2.79 and well outside the P75 range of 2.26, indicating free passes are undermining efficiency. That control slippage feeds directly into the WHIP problem: 1.47 is far worse than the 1.19 league average and represents a step back from his more stable 2023-2025 stretch, when ERA sat in the 3.86-4.05 range. The 4.96 ERA is his second-worst full-season mark on record, behind only his rocky 2022 (5.19), suggesting the current walk rate combined with likely harder contact is compounding into runs allowed at an above-average clip.

Looking Ahead

The sample size, 10 starts, is still small enough that a run of tightened command could meaningfully reset these season-long marks, especially given the underlying strikeout stuff has not disappeared. The path forward hinges almost entirely on cutting the walk rate back toward his career norms; if BB/9 regresses toward the 2.5-3.0 range, both ERA and WHIP have room to fall closer to his 2023-2025 form. Absent that correction, expect continued below-average results, as the current combination of elevated walks and an ERA nearing career-worst territory is not sustainable for a rotation-caliber workload over a full season.

AI-generated content (Claude) · Based on stats as of Sep 7, 2026

Detailed Analysis

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Season Analysis

Season Progress

ERA

↓ Lower is better

WHIP

↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Monthly Stats

ERA

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

WHIP

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Season Analysis

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Splits vs LHP / RHP

Season stats vs right-handed and left-handed batters

vs RHP/RHB

.278OPS .845 / HR 6

vs LHP/LHB

.283OPS .746 / HR 1

Metrics Deep Dive

MLB-wide percentile rank, defensive and pitching metric summaries, pitch-type stats, and batted-ball distribution.

Pitching — MLB-wide Standing

K/9 ranks in the top 44% of MLB. The rest sit closer to league average.

ERA4.96

WHIP1.47

strikeouts49

K/99.00

Bars show percentile rank among MLB-wide qualified players.

PITCHER · FIP

What is Yusei Kikuchi's FIP? 4.24 in 2026

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) measures a pitcher's true skill using only home runs, walks, hit-by-pitches and strikeouts — outcomes the pitcher controls. By stripping out defense and luck, it tracks real ability more closely than ERA.

Yusei Kikuchi's 2026 FIP is 4.24, rated as "MLB average". That's 0.24 above the MLB average of about 4.00, leaving room to improve.

Compare with other Japanese pitchers in the FIP ranking

Pitch Type K% & BA Against

K% / BA-against / Whiff% by pitch type this season. K% is based on at-bats where each type was the strikeout pitch.

Pitch	Usage	K%	BAA	Whiff%
Four-Seam Fastball	38.4%	21.8%	.362	14.5%
Slider	20.8%	17.9%	.444	25.3%
Splitter	18.3%	32.4%	.304	27.9%
Cutter	11.8%	24.1%	.462	23.9%
Curveball	10.3%	22.2%	.364	31.6%

K%: rate of strikeouts among plate appearances where this pitch type was the final pitch. Whiff%: whiffs per swing. Types with fewer than 10 pitches excluded.

Splits by Batter Handedness

BA / OPS against and WHIP vs right-handed and left-handed batters this season. Spot weaknesses by batter type.

Split	BAA	OPS	WHIP	K	IP
vs RHB	.278	.845	1.51	35	37.0
vs LHB	.283	.746	1.37	14	11.2

Game Log

2026 Season Appearance Log

10 starts · 49 total strikeouts

Season Best K

Sun, Apr 19 vs SD

Season Debut

Sat, Mar 28 @ HOU

4.1IP · 3K

Date	Opp	IP	K	HR	BB	Dec
9/6	@PIT	6.0	6	-	3	W
8/31	vsPHI	7.0	6	2	1	L
8/24	@TEX	5.0	4	2	1	L
4/30	@CWS	2.0	1	-	1	-
4/25	@KC	5.0	5	-	2	L
4/19	vsSD	6.0	8	-	1	-
4/14	@NYY	3.1	3	2	4	-
4/8	vsATL	5.0	8	-	1	L
4/2	@CHC	5.1	5	-	4	L
3/28	@HOU	4.1	3	1	1	-